The Slayers of The XXI Century
by GPhoenix
Summary: Buffy died saving the world so a new Slayer must be summoned... but what happens when things go wrong and you end up having FOUR Slayers? Dark creatures bewhare! The XXI Century Slayers have arrived!
1. The Final Moments of the Slayer

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Buffy (or her memory) or Giles and all that Buffy related stuff. I only own a couple of vampires and myself as Faye belongs to herself, Callie belongs to herself and Hannah belongs to herself too. I choose to use my real friends on this, with their permission. A couple of sentences might sound really out the line but oh well... I wanted this to sound serious but stupid at the same time! Lame me... Imao! Well, enjoy it!  
  
------------- --- -- -  
  
I couldn't say I never saw this coming. I knew that sooner or later it would come to this. To my death. No one is invincible, I know. Though I also know I had more chances of survival than anyone else alive.  
  
I am... I was the Slayer after all...  
  
Oh if Giles could see me now... he'd kill me if I wasn't already half dead. I think the man will have a heart attack this time. It's the second Slayer he looses as a Guardian. Before me he had Buffy Summers. He still misses her, I know she was a great Slayer. I always tried to keep up with her reputation, but I never seemed to. I bet she wouldn't die like this...  
  
Erg... actually she did, or else I wouldn't be here. She died on the New Years Eve, from 1999 to 2000. An occasion filled with symbolic meaning and, of course, something evil had to come and ruin the party. Thank god she was there. She managed to close the hellsmouth under Sunnydale for good, but at the cost of her own life. I used to dream about that fight, her last fight, but never told Giles. It would only open the old wounds the man still has.  
  
Anyway, she'd never fall in such a stupid trap like I did... the great vampire Slayer of this generation! Oh, I'm so ashamed of myself! Of all I've done, of all I've learned... A kid! I was defeated by a 10 year-old kid! Me! With twice his age! I bet it would hurt my ego if my body wasn't hurting already...  
  
Friday night and, as most of my nights, I was out for the night-patrol. My roommate didn't seem to care, I guess she was already used to it, to my night escapades. Giles decided to stay on the library on that night, from which I was very grateful. That way he will not see the state I'm in.  
  
It had been a slow week for slaying. Only one or to stupidly lost vampires for each night. I didn't even have time to sweat my top! One un-dead on the street and that was it. No wonder I was almost killing for a bit of action. I'm always amazed on how fast my wishes usually come true, the wrong ones I mean... Once I wished for that hottie from the 4th year to ask me out and he never did. But if for some reason I wish for a couple of vampires, they start springing from every corner. Sometimes, being the great Slayer just sucks!... Big time!  
  
So, a couple of the regular brainless vampires came. A couple of kicks, two sharp stakes and that was it. I patted my clothes to get rid of those disgusting ashes and tuned away, for sure it was it for that night... But it wasn't no, nono! If only I knew...  
  
I was about to come home when I head a kid's scream and my Slayer sense started buzzing on my ears. I never heard my anti-vampire-and-other-evil- things mental alarm working like that! It was like someone had a truck horn buzzing on my head, besides the cramps on my muscles and the cold goosebumps on my skin. Yeah, I bet it works better then the spider sense that the Spider-Man has... if he ever existed. Anyway, I knew that vampires were around, loads of them. So as the good Slayer I am, I went to save the night.  
  
There was a little kid among a really big pack of vampires, snorting and showing their sharp fangs at the poor chubby kid. They were looking at him like the boy was some kind of juicy steak. I sighed and took out a few stakes and holly water and started my own little party. I jumped to the centre of that circle of starving beings. Unlike what I was waiting for, they seemed pleased to see me.  
  
That was not a good sign, never is. A vampire is never happy to see the Slayer.  
  
A bald old man in a tweed coat and a young woman with pink hair tried to jump to my back. I was somewhat surprised to see it was my roommate. Damn, it was already the third one had to slay! Even still, it was easy. I just needed to bend down a bit and they splat alone on the floor. These seemed even more stupid then all the other vampires I found night after night. Well... not all of them. As I took care of them, a stake deeply buried on their hearts and with a puff sound they had turned into dust. But while I took care of that one, one young man in a leather coat jumped to my back, while another man, this time of middle aged and using a very elegant suit came and wrapped himself around my legs. Two more puff sounds and they were gone too.  
  
Ok, so they understood I was a tough one and while some tried to take care of me, they went for the kid. Only then I saw why my senses had warned me like that. Almost twenty other vampires came from the dark. These where bigger and seemed smarted than all the other ones I had encountered there. Sometimes bigger fangs actually mean bigger brains. I learned that on the hard way. What to do? Take the kid under my arm and ran the hell out of there! That's what I did.  
  
Vampires are not known by their brains, everyone knows that, but they really move fast. Way too fast for that night. The kid was heavy, so I ended up putting him on my back, I needed my hands free, and he could always take care of my rear... They came from everywhere! I never realised that god-forsaken land had so many vampires! The kid said that on our left there was an underground passage to a field where kids used to play cricket, so I followed his lead.  
  
Underground passage my butt! It was the entrance for the sewers! A dead- end! Our only hope was one of the four tunnels and they wouldn't do us good. We'd for sure get cornered somewhere inside! By that time I wished Giles was there... desperately! I was feeling totally lost as I didn't know where I was. I had only arrived to that small town one year ago and only now realised it had more sewer systems than New York! Damn, I promised to myself never to listen to kids again.  
  
I took the tunnel number two on my right, still with the kid on my back. I felt, I listened, I could almost smell them following us. I could hear each and every breath of each vampire. The tunnel was full of smelly water that was now getting inside my tennis shoes. Taking a new tunnel, now free of water, it was darker than the one we had left. Then, with no warning, it was like something or someone was telling me where to go and I started not to pay attention to my way and just followed that pre-destined path.  
  
We entered in a roomy gallery made of dark-blue shinny tiles. The air there was heavy and damp but extremely cold. Small candles were spread all over, casting ghostly shadows. There were no windows or doors, there was only the entrance from we had come in. Only then, when my eyes adjusted to that darkness, I noticed all the blood on the floor and on the walls and again my Slayer sense started buzzing.  
  
Too late it seemed.  
  
I looked over my shoulder to see the kid. "Where the hell have you brought us?" My English isn't perfect I know that. But if even a British man like Giles can understand me, that kid could too. I said kid? Sorry I was wrong, kiddies don't have sharp teeth on their mouths. And those sharp teeth sank deeply into my shoulder making me yell in pain. I had never been bitten and I'm secure to say: it hurts like hell!  
  
I shook him off and threw him against a wall, he flew a couple of meters. Did I care? NO! I looked around for a place to hide, for something I could use as a weapon, but that place seemed like an anti-Slayer trap. Closed, small, smelly and totally deprived from everything. I pressed the wound on my shoulder, feeling the warm blood staining my hand. The smell of my blood was going to rise fast on that cold place and act like a neon sign for every vampire in the neighbourhood: Free meal this way!  
  
I never, until then, felt like I was in such deep shit like I was now when I saw the vampires that had been following swarming into the room. The kid smiled showing is young teeth stained with my blood and... yuck... he was drooling! What happened then was way too fast for me to describe it. The kid talked to me, but it wasn't a child's voice... I can't even remember his exact words. I just remember that all the vampires jumped at the same time at me.  
  
And left me where I lay now. I remember the kid telling me to drink his blood, that way he'd let me live, that I'd be his personal servant. I refused. No way I'd lose my soul to an existence full of blood and away from the sunlight! That would ruin my rare and precious tan! I refused and he just watched while is most faithful servants drained all life force from my veins. The others, the lower class, could only watch, drooling and wishing for a piece of me.  
  
I'm full of bite marks, lying in a puddle of my own red blood though I feel strangely warm. Is that normal? I dunno, I've never been so close to death like I'm now. My arms are spread open and my head is turned to one of them. I can't even move it or even my fingers, I'm too weak. I seemed to have lost all my hearing hours ago... or was it minutes ago? I'm not sure, I've lost track of time. Not that I care about it at the moment. I'm still waiting to see the colourful tunnel that people who lived near death experiences claimed to have seen. For me it is still very dark... and getting darker. My sight is flickering and failing. I have to blink to keep on seeing things.  
  
I'm now getting cold. Now I am really believing I'm dyeing. I just can't understand why they left me like this, at mercy of a slow death. I remember them saying something about The Mother. I bet she wants a piece of me too... I see an enormous fat rat near my hand, it is smelling it, sensing my blood. God, even the rats what a piece of me! My fingers, my feet, legs... they are all cold and without sensibility now. I can't feel a thing, not even my wounds... My eyes start to shut and I feel so sleepy, so tired... My breath is shallow and weak, it hurts to breathe and I finely close my eyes... My brain is shutting down... I... I can't think anymore...  
  
May destiny call up the new Slayer, I wish her all the best luck in the world.  
  
This is it, I'm feeling myself cutting the last string that was sustaining my life. And Damn! I haven't paid this month's Internet bill!...  
  
...A heart stopped beating... 


	2. In The Night

Disclaimer: Special chapter wrote by my good and talented friend Callie as a request by me.  
  
It was night - an early June night, to be exact.  
  
The small village and its inhabitants were asleep, nestled in the peaceful valley in which it had been situated for over 400 years. A river ran through the centre, separating one side, of houses, and the fields and barns where the townsfolk grew their food and went about other necessary tasks; such as cultivating crops.  
  
Each house looked similar, small, sweet and thatched. A patch of grass surrounded each one, with flowers sprouting from beneath leaded windows. The flowers were in full bloom at this time of the season, gracing the green grass with their vivid presence.  
  
A light breeze blew through the valley, rustling leaves on trees and making the crops waver. Freshly grass, sea salt and cool night air could be smelt. Dew was already starting to cover the ground, like a damp rug.  
  
For all the beauty though, an eerie silence permeated the town. No birds sung in the apple trees of the orchard, no foxes could be caught rustling the bushes for something to eat. Only the gentle swish of the quiet river, flowing down to the large expanse that was the sea, could be heard. And even that seemed quietened.  
  
The townsfolk were scared, for tonight was the night, that she would walk. They were hidden in their rooms, with candles and fires, flames everywhere. The children were tucked away, asleep. Whilst the parents watched from windows if they dared.  
  
Suddenly, there was a loud uproar from the forest, and a great cloud of birds flew from the tree's, escaping the scene in the woods below. Dogs suddenly started barking, their fur standing on end, and their tails thwapping against the nearest objects. The cats they used in the mill to chase away mice, dashed to the window, their ears flattened, and hissing madly. Horses whinnied, spooked.  
  
Deep in the forest, stood a woman. A woman who was tall and thin, with spindly arms and legs, walking down from the hilltop. Her face was long, and deep eyes were set back in her face. Her skin seemed tightly stretched across the bones, and she looked gaunt, frightened. She had long, waist length hair, which was perfectly straight.  
  
The woman wouldn't have been that bad looking, if it wasn't for her eyes. They were green, viciously so. Strangely haunting. They had too big and too black pupils.  
  
Though, that wasn't the weirdest thing about her. When she opened those pale lids, anything she laid eyes on, withered instantly – lifeless. Flowers, trees, birds that hadn't the sense to run; all dead.  
  
The body of a small sparrow lay on the ground. She rested her gaze on it, making the flesh disintegrate, leaving only the raw bones exposed.  
  
Silently, swiftly, she made her way down to the village.  
  
To feed. 


	3. The First Summoned One

_The First Summoned One_

The large school was now dark and silent and shadows where spread on every available surface. The corridors were now deprived from all its sounds: kids yelling and fooling around, the bell ring for classes, the sound of footsteps running... The tall book filled oak shelves looked even taller now, frightening even, to the oblivious ones that dared to venture on the school's library this night or in any other night. But in spite of all the darkness and heavy silence that filled the place, a weak light flicked at one of the corners.

For no reason Rupert Giles looked at the candle right beside him when it flickered and the flame extinguished itself, leaving him immersed in a partial darkness. He still was all over a big thick old book, covered in dust. Giles felt like ice had covered his stomach and he closed the book slowly, leaving his hands rest on it. His eyes got tear-filled behind his thin glasses.

He knew.

That new slayer had been even more undisciplined than Buffy... maybe a bit more lazy and carefree than Buffy but both had been unique on their own way. Feeling heavy and slow, Giles rose, rubbing his eyes. He also felt guilty. He had not been with her that night, on her patrol... The same had happened with Buffy. He took the phone under the desk and dialled a number.

"We lost her." He said simply. "Summon the next one."

-- --- --

For no reason Faye woke up from her sleep feeling a funny itch on a dark big mole she had on her left shoulder blade. Her blond hair was fluffy and pointing to all directions as she scratched it with the tips of her fingers. She sat on the middle of the bed, looking at nowhere on the darkness. She had just wakened up from a dream, a strange dream with a girl, a young kid and lots and lots of vampires. Was that normal? No! Normal teenagers don't dream about vampires! They might dream about Orlando Bloom or Brad Pitt, but they do not dream about vampires!

She slipped off her comfy and warm bed and went to the window, like she was sleepwalking. It was still dark outside, quiet and silent as always. Stars shinning, crickets singing on the grass, one or two owls flying around looking for dinner... but she was restless. Something inside her was telling her she had a place to go... but at 3 AM in the morning? Again she felt an itchy feeling one her mole.

"Stupid thing..." she whispered in the darkness still looking outside, scratching the mole. She wanted to go out into the night... it was like she was being called by the darkness. She had had weird dreams before, where she saw things from other girls' eyes, some of them occurred on ancient times. But all of those dreams had something in common: all girls were always killing evil creatures. This new one had been different though, it was a normal girl, only a couple of years older than her and she was fighting... and died. Faye could almost swear she knew the place of her dream.

Taking off her pyjamas and dressing the jeans and the t-shirt she had left on a chair, she took her bag and started taking everything out of it. She had just arrived England two weeks ago with her parents. She was supposed to change schools, leaving the United States to enrol in a boarding school. _Yay for that!..._, she thought sarcastically. She snorted at the simple thought of it. Again Faye felt her mole itch. That really wasn't normal, and to add to all that, she felt like she was being observed.

From the bottom of the bag she found and took out an old looking book. Its cover was thick and worn, made of dark red leather. Inside, its pages were yellow and smelled like something wet that had died long ago. Faye didn't mind, she loved that book, she could almost repeat all the sentences on it without even looking. That book, that diary, had been on her family for ages. Had belonged to her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother's sister or something like that, and had been passed to all the girls in the family. She sat on the floor among the silence and the darkness and using the silvery moonlight Faye opened it and read the first entry of the diary.

"_20th June, year of the Lord of 1349_

_Finely, at the age of 28, my time has arrived, the time to fulfil my place in destiny, for what I've been trained for. Father MacGreggor sent for me last night, I was at the monastery's chapel praying. These are dark times and darker ones are yet to come, he told me._

_The black plague is spreading throughout Europe, taking lives and spreading suffering on every big city, every village, every lonesome cottage, leaving a trail of death. The corpses form piles everywhere, infecting the few ones that still are healthy. The scholars say the disease came from a boat filled with corpses and that it was spread by fleas and rats. Others say it's the wrath of god. As for us, we know it was something else, something more evil. A boat full of corpses doesn't appear out of the blue for no reason... We know it was them. This is their way of telling us: We Are Coming. _

_News came that the Chosen One died on the Scottish Mountains, an evil being took her body and spirit. I never knew the girl... I shall pray for her soul. We have now to search the new Chosen One, messengers have already been sent to the four corners of the known world._

_Father MacGreggor called me apart after the arrival of the troubling news to the Council. He told me that from all the novices, I'm the one most prepared for the mission, to guide the Chosen One. The Council might not agree, I'm a woman, they'll say. No matter what they might say, I am prepared. _

_Tonight I'll receive a young girl under my protection... the Chosen One, the Slayer._

_Tonight, I'll become a Guardian._"

Faye smiled on her privet delight. How she loved that book... She sighed with a dreamy look on her face. How she wished that everything on that book could be real... the vampires and the demons, the slayers and the guardians... she sighed again. It would be so great! She identified herself so much with all that. Like the slayer described by her guardian on that book, she also had a weird mole and weird dreams.

"It would be so cool..." she whispered.

"Faye? You're still up?" Faye looked at the door of her room, partially closed. She could see the light that came from the bathroom next door through it.

"No mom, I'm sleeping!" she answered quite sarcastically. The light went out and steps going away were heard.

"Go to bed young lady!" a woman's voice said. "You'll have to wake up early tomorrow!" after the sound of a door being closed, silence reigned again.

Faye sighed and put the diary back on her backpack and went again to the window. Why she was having that feeling, that urge about going outside? She frowned as the shadows danced outside, pushed by the slight breeze. Like someone was controlling her body, Faye found herself walking towards the window, opening it, her hair being brushed by the breeze. "Blythburg" she mumbled and then snaped. "Blythburg?! But that's in Suffolk! Wait! How the hell do I know that?!"

Faye frowned even more and felt a cold chill run down her spine because she knew she had to go to Blythburg... now! She knew it was very far away from where she was, a mildly developed small city called Livingstone Valley, named in honour of a great English explorer – David Livingstone – almost two hours away from London. Nothing ever happened there, but that night it was reaching the highest scales of weirdness.

Again, before Faye noticed, her leg was already out the window, her backpack on one shoulder. She got pale realising she was about to jump from a second floor window of a Victorian style-looking-like house. It was high, way to high to jump, but again, like someone or _something_ was controlling her body, with a slight impulse and she was falling to the darkened grass under her window.

Faye didn't even have time or the courage to scream.

She hit the floor and rolled over herself, ending up sat on the moist grass. "What tha...?!" she whispered looking up to the window. She thought she would, at least, break a leg or an arm due to the fall, but she was perfectly ok!

"Freaky... way to freaky!" she mumbled getting up, cleaning the bits and pieces of grass that were glued to her jeans and looked around. Suddenly everything had gone silent, a heavy unnatural silence. Something on the back of her head, a tiny voice was telling her that something was there, in the darkness. Something dangerous. With a cold goosebump on her skin, Faye made her way to the front door.

She almost ran to the door like she had saw the devil itself, cold goosebumps and a freaky itching feeling on her mole almost driving her insane. She hopped it all was being a dream... besides, she was feeling cramps on her muscles, like an alarm or a warning.

The silvery moon got covered by a large cloud, making everything go dark.

She had already turned the corner of the house, now standing a few feet from the front porch when she hit the floor, a strange weight sat on her back forcing her down.

"It's like they say" a cold evil voice whispered at her ear, making the hair on her neck rise "if you have a problem, cut it by its roots before it grows..."

Inwardly, Faye knew she should be silent and act quickly, to get rid of that strange weight, though she on the verge of tears and scared like hell. What happened next was fast and confused. Faye was gathering all her strengths to scream like a five-year-old on a roller coaster when her arms reached back, grabbing the head of whoever that person was and while pulling her knees up, she made it fly above her and hit the ground a few feet away, as she quickly got up, shaking like a leaf.

She searched the darkness for whoever had attacked her, wondering how she had done that. She used to be agile, but not THAT agile... or strong! She looked to her left, seeing something crouching on the stairs that lead to the front door. It seemed like a man wearing a black cloak or long coat.

"Very good..." that evil voice came to her again, again making her hair rise in a very uncomfortable way. It, somehow, sounded American. "Very good... but not good enough Slayer". The man rose.

"Slayer?! What tha fuck?" Faye spat feeling confused and scared.

The cloud, pushed by the wind, moved away and the moonlight lit everything again.

It was then that Faye's blue eyes grew bigger in her eye-sockets. That man... he was walking towards her. He indeed wore a long coat, very matrix-ish looking, bright wavy orange hair, vicious vivid green eyes, pale blue-ish grey face and big pointy white sharp fangs on his smile... besides he was drooling.

"Eeewww!!!" Faye made a sickened face before the image lit up a light bulb on her brain and she went as pale as he was. "VAMPIRE!!!" she tried to speak but her voice was caught somewhere on her throat. She seemed to be frozen on the place where she was standing.

"What? Are you shocked already?" he asked amused. "And about if I look like this?" his face twitched and moved, morphing into the mask of a demon, horrible and totally inhuman. Faye grew paler, if that was possible. "Hey, don't piss your pants because of this... way worse is yet to come!" and laughed. "Oh you rookie Slayer wannabes kill me every time... oh wait! I'm already dead!" and laughed again.

Faye felt like she was about to pass out. It was a nice time to pass out, knowing that a real vampire was now standing in front of her, but instead of that, she looked to the ground and spotted little stick. In a fast movement, Faye kicked the stick making it fly to her hands and threw it like a dart, without even realising what she was doing. When she finely blinked, she realised the stick was now deeply buried in that guys chest. He was bent, gasping and salivating, looking at it with wide-open eyes. Faye backed away from him, shaking even more.

"Aaww shit... Rookies suck!" he said before he exploded in a cloud of dust with a soft puff sound.

"It was a vampire! A real one! The diary was right they DO exist!" Faye thought thrilled and scared at the same time, feeling the tasty flush of adrenaline travelling on her veins and she smiled. She had done it! Killed her first vampire! She was a Slayer, like he had said! She really was! She was powerful, she was fast, she was strong, she was a menace... she was fucked!

"Poor Reggie, I knew it was a waste of time to turn him into one of us..." Another cold voice came to her and she turned around. On her right side the trees were dark and full of moving shadows... live ones. Faye got scared again when she spotted at least six pairs of glowing eyes among the trees. Reaching down, she grabbed a long and thick branch of a tree, breaking it so it would get pointy waving it at them.

"G-g-go away!" she yelled.

"Oh what a menace! A girlie with a stick!" Faye looked back when a soft thud got her attention. A vampire had just landed on the roof above the front porch. A twenty four year old woman.

"Go away?" We just arrived!" said another one, landing on the place where lay the aches of the deceased vampire, kicking them away. He moved slowly, in an almost numb but strangely seductive way. It was a boy that must be her age, smiling at her, showing his glittery white teeth. He walked around her slowly, making Faye grow nervous with his predator face. She looked around. She had no where to go and was slowly being surrounded and cornered. She couldn't call her parents, no way she would put them in danger.

Her hands tightened the grip on the stick. Six vampires, possibly more, against a fifteen-year-old girl armed with a stick. Yes, she was pretty muck fucked. The vampire woman, a bombshell blond, let out an animal-like groan and approached her, her face morphing like Faye had already seen previously, smiling.

"You're not going to run away from us or something?" she asked with a fake sensible voice. "This is no fun, it's being too easy Bryus!" she complained to the big vampire that had spoken before, the first one. He left the darkness, showing all his real size. It was a man around its 30 years old, had long black hair to his middle back, his eyes were dark and deep like an dark abyss, wearing dark clothing and a long leather coat, very Matrix-ish looking. His hands where large and powerful, just like his fangs that where now showing in a smile from is perfect lips.

"Don't question Bryus, Ellene." The younger vampire mocked, his until now pleasant face morphing into a grotesque mask of evil. "He knows what he's doing."

"Shut up Tai." She retorted. "I didn't make you a question, did I?"

The young boy smirked and turned again his gaze to the pale and terrified Faye, who was till holding the branch as a weapon.

"Even though I have to agree with her Bryus." He said walking around Faye just to make her nervous, unaware that she was already feeling terrified. "The other one was a tough one to kill, she was a professional after all, but this one... she wasn't even called yet. She isn't aware of her role on this. She doesn't worth the strength we lost on her."

"Do I sense some pity in you, my dear _protege_?" Bryus said with an accented voice and a soft laugh looking at Tai's young face, also approaching Faye. She was now circled by Tai, Bryus and Ellene. The others awaited but far way from them. In spite of her fear, Faye understood that those three were the leaders.

"I only say that she doesn't worth all this. She's small, skinny and all." Tai eyed Faye closely. "The thrill of the hunt is over for me." He moaned at last with disappointment.

"Bryus, your little boy is refusing a meal! Could it be love?" Ellene laughed evilly and approached Faye with a sexy cat-like walking and took her face on her bony white hand. "She isn't all that pretty... You already fed on girls way better looking than this one on your 200 years of existence, Tai."

Bryus looked a Tai waiting for his reply to Ellene's words. Though he knew the girl was supposed to be dead minutes ago, he was amused with all that. It was not like she was going anywhere anyway.

The only one that was feeling a bit left out from all that was Faye. In a second she had passed from a predator to a prey and she wasn't liking it at all. If they were about to kill her, in a strange way she wished they did it quickly because all that suspense was killing her. Besides, she was already growing a deep hatred for the blond vampire, Ellene. Ok, she never considered herself as a top model, but she was pretty! Her fingers tightened the grip on the stick, trying to feel confident. She had already killed one vampire, why couldn't she kill six or seven more? A bit of self-confidence was always welcome...

"Look" Faye tried "That guy there is right, I don't worth it. I don't even know who you are or what you are or why are you here. Can't we all just give a big hug and be friends?" she made a weak smile.

All the vampires looked at her in silence, like she was an alien or a very rare freak of nature. Tai glanced incredulous at her but a slight smile crossed his thin lips. Ellene looked at her totally horrified, like Faye had said the worst sin possible. Bryus only laughed. Cold evil giggles that crossed and echoed on the sill air.

"You have to give it to her, my dear Ellene. This was the best joke I've heard in 400 years!" Bryus stated and laughed a bit more.

"This is already taking too long." A vampire from the rear said with a shaking voice. "Dawn is coming but the Guardians will be here before that. We must now feed Bryus."

"Sshh..." Bryus held his hand up to silence anyone who still wanted to speak. "I know Jon, I know. But I hate when so many people are right. Tai is right, Ellene is right... even the Slayer is right. She doesn't worth it." Bryus moved his big but agile body to his right, opening as escape rout to Faye. "Go on."

Faye looked at him perplexed.

"Go on." Bryus said again before everyone's astonished glances. "Go! You're free to go. You don't worth it at all, not even as a possible meal."

Faye didn't take too much time thinking about the odds and the possibilities. Without a second thought and still holding the stick, she ran away from them as fast as she could into the dark grass fields. Her breathing soon became fast and heavy, the oxygen not getting to her lungs properly giving her the strange sensation of drowning as she ran. She didn't know where she was going to, tripping, slipping and jumping in the darkness.

With the darkness surrounding her and the cold and wet branches and leafs hitting her face as she ran, Faye had lost her track and her sense of time. Had she been running for seconds... or minutes? Hours maybe? No, not hours. If she had been running for hours she had to be on London for sure. Faye coughed for air, only now realising how cold it was outside as her breathing left her lips in white clouds of vapour. She dared to look over her shoulder as she ran, but no one was following her, nothing was moving, as far as she could see at least. That thought made her smile and--

!!!PLOF!!!

With a soft thud Faye hit the floor, her nose touching the moist earth and she quickly rose her face looking around. Only then she realised that her foot was trapped in a large root. With an annoyed groan she sat up quickly and freed her foot rubbing it. She didn't know where she was and looking to the sky, she let out a relieved sigh as she realised that dawn was coming soon. The dark damp sky was turning into a soft baby blue and pink. Soon the nightmare – it could only be a nightmare, it had to – would be over.

With a new smile and feeling a new flush of energy, she rose and turned to run, only to hit against something that looked like a wall.

"Shit!" she whispered when she fell heavily again, this time on her butt. She looked up slowly, trying to adjust her sight to the darkness, feeling again that odd itchy feeling on her mole and some quite painful cramps on her muscles.

"You can run but you can't hide..." said a cold voice coming from the solid shadow she was facing and her blood froze on her veins.

"She did offer us quite a hunt! She almost eluded us." said other voice, this time a woman's. Mocking, sarcastic... dangerous.

"With the proper training, with the proper guidance, she could have been a great one..." whispered softly another voice, a young one. Faye couldn't see him and in the frenzy that surrounded all the vampires, no one seemed to have heard him either... except her.

"Now, you made it worth it."

A dead calm and evil voice whispered near her ear. A sharp pain spread all over her body starting from her neck... and Bryus's face was the last thing she saw.


	4. The Second Summoned One

_The Second Summoned One_

"This is not good." The room was darkened, the pale pattern of the moonlight spread across the expensive polished floor. Everything around was brown and golden, old looking furniture that any eccentric collector would kill to possess. The fire danced numbly on the fireplace as a man walked back and forth on top on the fluffy Persian rug. "This is not good!"

"You already said that Henry." A man sat behind a big desk dared to smile, intertwining is long fingers.

"But this situation is not good! They should have contacted us hours ago. They already knew the drill... this is not good!"

"We're getting a bit repetitive, aren't we Henry?"

The short white haired man looked then to one of the black tall armchairs. A smooth brown haired girl was sat there with an absent look on her soft lined face. More than absent, she was looking bored to death when she glanced Henry for a second, diving again afterwards into de difficult mission of peeling off her nail polish from her nails. She let out another bored sigh.

"This lack of communications has to be taken very seriously, James." Henry retaliated, walking again back and fourth on the rug. His conservative looking clothes – a brown tweed suit – made it clear that he was something near to a very important Englishman. His grey eyes eyed the man behind the desk, a trustworthy respectable man. "You knew since the beginning that I didn't agree with the Council's decision. After all he had already lost one Slayer! And like I expected he lost a another one!"

"Henry..."

"I warned you, James! God knows I warned you! He just wasn't qualified!" Henry continued, ignoring James's words. "Just look at the evidence! To the most trustworthy and ancient of them! The journals!"

"... Henry...?"

"Never! Never on the history Guardians, a Guardian was called for a second time after losing its Slayer, but no! Giles had to have a second chance! Look to what he's done with your second chance! And right on the moment when--"

"Henry!" James said finely, tired of hearing to the old man's complains. He rubbed his temples as to find some peace of mind. "Henry... Giles did an excellent job with Buffy Summers. She did what was expected of her, she stopped evil from coming and destroy the world as we know it." He made a well-calculated pause, an extraordinary example of oratory. "What happened to Giles's the second Slayer was an unfortunate accident. But thanks to it, we know that evil is reuniting its hordes, after the Master's last attempt to rise and his consequent destruction. And as for the Guardian's journals, Henry, they aren't always _that_ accurate."

The girl on the cosy black leather armchair left out a giggle without looking at the men, feeling an hint of sarcasm on James's last comment. She moved a bit to get more comfortable, now sat across the armchair, with her legs on top of one of the chair's arms. James glanced at her briefly, a warm smile on his lips.

Henry swallowed what he was going to say next. He could say it later. He started pacing again back and forth, looking at his watch, looking out the window. "It's nearly dawn. They should be arriving already."

James nodded now feeling worried and the first ray of sunlight entered the room by the tall window. The girl placed her hand in front of her eyes to keep the sun from maintaining her blind when, suddenly, she jumped up from the armchair like someone had given her an electric shock.

"Hannah?" James asked softly, only moving his eyes.

Her blue eyes were serious and when she spoke, her voice sounded almost unreal. "She's dead."

"What?! What are you saying child? Who died?" Henry almost yelled at her ears, but Hannah remained undisturbed.

She slowly rose the sleeve of her orange very-in-fashion blouse and shown the inner skin of her upper right arm. A dark mole was there, an odd shaped one. She touched it feeling a bit of disgust. Well, at least it was on as hidden place.

James rose from his chair and walked to her without making a sound, his chestnut eye glowed with the morning light as he observed her mole and then her face. He let out an indecipherable sigh and sat again. "The sign of the Slayers." He whispered softly.

"If she was called, then the other one must be dead. Our men didn't get to her on time!" Henry almost yelled again. "The vampires are moving fast!"

Hannah stared at her mole for a bit more before she covered it again, pushing her silky brown fringe away from her eyes. She had sensed it, the death of the Slayer... like she had sensed the death of the Slayer before that one. She felt like a cold grip had involved her when she felt the death and this time it was even stronger, as to warn that she would be next. She smiled. She was glad that she'd been called, she had yearned for it. She had been trained for it. Hannah turned at Henry, a bright spark on her clear eyes.

"Moving fast or not, they have to beware." Her voice transpired confidence and courage. "Now it's my turn."

TO BE CONTINUED! (Unfinished chapter)


End file.
